Say What?

In the spirit of remembering all the funny stuff Tot says:

"No get soap in my eyes!" - sing-songed at the mention of any activity involving soap. We learned the hard way that not all "tear free" soaps are tear free.

"Mommy, you no need new pillow. You need Silky. And Blanket." - while we were pillow shopping

"Mommy, you pease get my blanket?" - any time he drops it in the car or if it's in another room of the house. He has similar variations of this for any things he wants us to retrieve for him. It's IMPOSSIBLE to resist.

"I love you, babe." - said to the dogs and often to other kids

"YES!" - loud, affirmative answer to questions (previously was vigorous nodding and "mm-HMMM").

"Tew" - how old he is

"SIX!" - how old Mommy (and everyone else) is

"I pease feel it?" - anything that he isn't supposed to pick or pick up - especially flowers in other peoples' yards

"Mommy! You got WED! I yike you wed." - he noticed my pedicure immediately and has frequently expressed his like of my red toenails in the 2 weeks since.

"IpeepeeinpottyIgetfruitsnacks!!!" - self explanatory

"No peepee on LightingKeen!" - learned from teacher as motivation not to tinkle in his underpants. It's not especially helpful, but it's really cute to hear him sing-song it every time he sees underpants.

Random songs he is overheard singing:
Veggie Tales theme song (he pronounces celery as "sell-yur-EE")
Alphabet song ("ABCs")
New Testament ("Matthew, Mark and Luke and John")

He is also fond of pretending to be a spider, a snake or a shark. They all say "RAH!" Sometimes, the snake also says, "sssssssssss...". Sometimes he mixes it up by being a frog and jumping through the house saying, "Wibbit!"

Thirty-eight and Great!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful, handsome husband! He LOVES me and our kids and tells us so daily. He makes me laugh. He makes me feel feminine because he is protective of his family. He is driven and compassionate. We tend to stress together over small details, and then throw our hands up and say, "Whatever, it will all work out just like it always does. Plus, we will be together so it's bound to be fun like it always is!" It's true, when it comes down to it, we have fun together and we have fun apart. I think that's a hallmark for a great couple. I love him more than I tell or show him because I could never tell him or show him enough. I am so glad that God created us for each other.

I enlisted Teen's help to make MH a cake a few days early so that we could all enjoy it together. Teen cooked it and frosted it all on his own. I think it's hilarious!

100 Posts!

This post is my 100th post! I have posted 42 times already this year, meaning that, with this post, a full 43% of my posts are from 2012. For reference, I started this blog in 2009 upon finding out that I was pregnant with Tot. I am pleased with my progress.

Around the beginning of the year, I started noticing a huge urge to write here more. I also really wanted to let my family and close friends know about this blog. I don't know why the sudden change happened, but I am glad it did. What I do know, finally, is why I write here at all.

My mom passed away before I had my own baby. Questions I never knew I would want to ask her will forever go unanswered. My sisters, brother and dad know some things, but they don't remember like a mom does. I wasn't in Teen's life until he was almost 8 years old, so I don't know about a lot of his firsts and milestones. MH doesn't even remember the specifics of a lot of them. Before blogging, I took pictures of Teen's new milestones and our vacations and big things and little things to mark the occasions, but I didn't really have an outlet to organize them. I have never been a journaler despite my best intentions. I want to document our lives. I want Tot to have a place to come back to to see what he was up to along his childhood. Our lives are changing so much, with only more change to come so very soon with Teen moving to college. He will be nearby, but he won't be at home. Blogging is a kind of scrapbook for me and my family. I love looking at other people's scrapbooks, but even if I had unlimited time and money, I would rather spend my time doing other things that I enjoy.

Many blogs that I read post daily, and some even post more than once a day. I have never been a writer, nor is that what I aspire to be. I am not looking for a huge readership or to make money from it (though that would be nice). I notice that, even now, in my mid-thirties - I forget things. I forget things that I never thought I would forget as I was witnessing them. I am terrified that one day, I won't be able to remember the little things (or the big things) that we did to make memories and a life together. I want both our kids to know that I noticed and that I love them and their dad. I want them to know that I love to cook, and I do it out of love for them just as much as enjoyment of food in general. I want them to know that I think it's important to take pictures and explore and learn and want to improve yourself along your whole life. I finally figured out that this blog is ultimately for us. With that realization, I even let my friends and family know about it and read it. That is why I blog, and why I have been blogging so much more this year.

Unconventional Gift

The day before Mother's Day, MH and I reorganized some of Tot's toys and put two small bins in our living room to contain the chaos. It worked beautifully! One bin for trains and tracks and another for wheeled items that we race across our foyer quite often. On Mother's Day, Tot was running a fever, so I stayed home from church to cuddle with him take care of him. He must have somehow known that it was a special day for Mommies, and he decided to stack me with as many gifts as he could find. He made a dozen or so trips between the bins and me delivering every single item to me. He was very proud of himself and would take a minute to rearrange everything if something toppled off the pile.

Busy Bees!

Generally, I am self professed home-body. I prefer to get all my running around done during my lunch or on a well planned Saturday morning trip so that my evenings and rest of the weekends are free to hang out at home with the family. At the same time, I want to go and do things with Tot. Until recently, I have let many excuses keep me from just doing those things.
~ I don't want Tot to have to be in the car "all" evening after daycare.
~ If we do that, then we have to eat out.
~ I'm tired. 
~ If we do "this", then "that" won't get done.

Though they may be legitimate, I consciously decided to let go of some excuses and have a few more away from home experiences lately. So in the past 10 days, we have done some really fun things and visited some people we might not have seen if we'd listened to me!
~ We drove to visit my dad and Cora (Coya) with dinner and fresh flowers.
~ We went to a family reunion and walked on a very neat bridge over the river.
~ We went FUN shopping on a Friday after work and ate sandwiches out. Tot did great!
~ We went to a morning showing of "Chimpanzee".
~ We went swimming with good friends after the movie - Tot even napped!
~ We drove to visit and eat with my sister and niece (no napping there...ugh).
~ We drove to ANOTHER Walmart to search for that bathing suit. We didn't find it but we did finally find the tattoos that a certain Tot has been asking for since we ran out 2 months ago.

I don't want to go overboard with activities, errands and whatnot, but Tot will never get to experience the things I want him to if we don't get out there and take him! While I want him to have fun memories of our time at home reading and playing and kicking the ball, I want him to also experience the good things and people around us. Next up are some ball games and festivals in our state and a big trip to UTAH in July.